176 KANSAS UNIVERSITY SCIENCE BULLETIN. 



brownish; apex of scape beneath narrowly yellowish; wings clear, ir- 

 idescent, venation testaceous, the tegulae paler; apex of fore femora, fore 

 tibise except beneath, and the upper basal portion of middle and hind 

 tarsi, pale yellow; tibiae brownish; first two or two and one-half abdominal 

 segments clear red, the black on apical segments often more extended 

 ventrally, apical margins of segments more or less testaceous, tip of 

 pygidium reddish. Appressed silvery pile plentiful. Length of type, 

 4.25 mm.; range, 3.50-4.75 mm. 



Phillips county, Kansas; August 30, 1912. 



^ . Like the J in many respects. Clypeus rather narrowly sub- 

 truncate mesad, the truncation itself a little produced in the middle, no 

 lateral teeth; propodeum usually a little more coarsely sculptured than in 

 o ; abdomen more pilose, ventral segments 3-6 tuberculate; the clypeus 

 is yellow, the second abdominal segment above often with a black band 

 and a few spots of the same color ventrad, last segment often reddi.'-h. 

 Facial pile frequently with a golden tinge. Length, 3.50-4.25 mm. 



Twenty-two ^ ^ and fifteen 5 j ; from Norton and Phillips coun- 

 ties; end of August, 1912. 



J . Var. Yellow markings replaced by reddish bro^vn; the last four 

 segments are blackish, the rest have some large spots of the same color. 

 Facial pile more silvery than in the usual form. 

 One ^ ; Graham county; August 16, 1912. 



Apparently most closely related to davisi, from which it differs in color 

 and in being smaller. The clypeal mai-gin in the g is subject to a little 

 variation. 



NITELIOPSIS Saunders. 

 Saunders; Trans. Ent. Soc. London, III, p. 410; 1873. 



Small insects, nearly naked or covered with short pile. Head rather 

 long, wider than thorax; antennse slender to quite stout and subclavate; 

 mandibles not or very slightly emarginate beneath; eyes rather strongly 

 converging to the top ; three perfect ocelli. Thorax stout, fusiform ; pro- 

 podeum rounded posteriorly; legs rather feebly spinose; marginal cell 

 rather elongate, truncate, the appendiculation rather obscure, second sub- 

 marginal cell petiolate, the transverse-median and recurrent varying in 

 relative position. 



g . No tarsal comb; pygidial area pilose, poorly or not defined. 

 J . Fore femora simple beneath at base; no pygidial area; eighth 

 ventral segment at least sometimes emarginate. 



The four Kansas species do not readily fall in this genus. Using 

 Ashmead's key, and granting first of all that the insects have a distinct 

 pygidial area (which is not evident to me), foxii would run to the genus 

 Niteliopsis, while the rest, on the same condition, would run to Silaon. 

 All of our species have been placed in the latter genus by Rohwer (Proc. 

 U. S. N. Museum, vol. 40, 586; 1911). Here the question hinges on the 

 species not having the mandibles emarginate exteriorly (Silaon ) , or hav- 

 ing the mandibles distinctly or shallowly emarginate exteriorly. The author 

 is not sufficiently acquainted with the group to arrive at any definite con- 

 clusion in the matter than to state that the group to which Nit. foxii, 

 vierecki, and probably fossor, belong, differs widely from the rest and should 



